Seal Beach shootings: Some families want death penalty dropped

Paul Wilson says he misses his wife, hairdresser Christy Wilson, 47, one of eight people killed two years ago this week in the Salon Meritage shooting in Seal Beach.ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Death penalty

California voters last November rejected the latest attempt to repeal the death penalty, rejecting Proposition 34 52 percent to 48 percent.

The state has executed just 13 convicts, and its death row has ballooned to more than 726 inmates since 71 percent of the electorate voted to reinstate capital punishment in 1978, according to the Associated Press. No executions have taken place since 2006, in part because of federal and state lawsuits filed by death row inmates.

SANTA ANA – Families of victims of Orange County’s deadliest mass shooting have been meeting informally with prosecutors – including District Attorney Tony Rackauckas – to voice their frustrations about the delays in getting the case to trial, some asking them to re-evaluate seeking the death penalty against the man accused in the rampage.

Relatives of eight people killed during the midday massacre at the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach said they talked about the devastating impact of returning to court time and again for pretrial hearings for Scott Evans Dekraai.

Dekraai is charged with gunning down his ex-wife and seven others Oct. 12, 2011.

In meetings over the past month, some victims’ relatives also told Rackauckas, with varying degrees of insistence, they would prefer the death penalty be dropped and have Dekraai plead guilty to multiple counts of murder.

This would make the Huntington Beach man eligible for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole rather than spend months or years going to trial to seek the death penalty, which some families say might never be imposed in a broken system.

“We’d like to see a speedy, and just, way to go about this trial,” said Paul Wilson, whose wife, hairdresser Christy Wilson, 47, was one of those killed two years ago this week.

‘THE REST OF MY LIFE’

Wilson said he does not question that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for Dekraai, but he laments the time it will take to get there and the toll on the victims.

“This will end up consuming the rest of my life,” Wilson said.

Defense attorneys say preparing to defend a death penalty case can add years to the time it takes to ready a case for trial.

The death penalty is on the books in California, where there are more than 700 inmates on death row, but no one has been executed in the state since 2006. Some killers have been appealing their sentences for more than 30 years.

Susan Kang Schroeder, the district attorney’s chief of staff, said the families’ concerns over the death penalty were “considered with great weight” by Rackauckas before prosecutors reaffirmed his decision last week to seek capital punishment against Dekraai.

The sentiment of the families on the death penalty is split, Schroeder said, with about half in favor and half against.

“As far as their frustration about the delay, we share the same frustration that this case should be tried as soon as possible,” Schroeder said.

Rackauckas drew some criticism when he announced just days after the mass shootings that he would seek the death penalty against Dekraai, 43. Defense attorneys complained at the time he did not weigh mitigating circumstances about Dekraai’s background when he decided unilaterally and immediately to seek the death penalty.

Paul Wilson says he misses his wife, hairdresser Christy Wilson, 47, one of eight people killed two years ago this week in the Salon Meritage shooting in Seal Beach. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Images of the eight people killed in the Seal Beach salon shooting: top row, from left, Michelle Fournier, Randy Fannin, Laura Webb Elody, Michele Fast; bottom row, from left, Dave Caouette, Victoria Buzzo, Lucia Kondas, Christy Wilson. FILE: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Scott Dekraai is led into the courtroom for his pretrial hearing before Judge Thomas M. Goethals in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana in this file photo from January 2012. FILE: KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A mourner wipes away tears in front of the temporary memorial at Salon Meritage in this file photo from Oct. 14, 2011. Some relatives of the shooting victims have been meeting informally with the district attorney to voice frustrations about the delay in the trial of the man accused in the slayings at the salon. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Scott Dekraai in a police photo released Oct. 13, 2011, by the Seal Beach Police Department. AP

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